Every spring scores of people flock to the Buzzard Festival at Hinckley, Ohio. They come to watch for buzzards. Most would be glad just to take a look at a buzzard. If they do see one of these" flying garbage cans", it will probably be circling high in the sky. From there it can watch the ground for signs of the waste and the dead animals on which it feeds.
The buzzard is the ugliest bird in the United States. In fact, it may well be the ugliest bird in the world. It has a small, bare, pink head. Its thick body is covered with dark, rough feathers.
In spite of its looks, the buzzard is important to the people of Hinckley. It is their first sign of spring. After a winter in the south, buzzards return to their homes in the north. In the Hinckley area, they always return on March 15. No one knows why. But they have come back to Hinckley Ridge on that day, sure as clocks work, for at least forty years.
The excitement starts in February. By the middle of March it has reached a high peak. Bets are placed. Prizes go to the person who sees the first buzzard. Radio stations and newspapers tell of the coming festival. And on the weekend after March 15 the people of Hinckley hold their Buzzard Festival.
The people come and look around. They chat. They eat their fill of pancakes and sausages. Then they drive past Buzzard's Roost on Hinckley Ridge.
A lot of them stop near the road at the stand set up to give information to visitors. There they can hear, from a recording, the main facts about the buzzard. They can see a stuffed buzzard. They can look at some pictures taken of buzzards in other years. With good luck and a strong pair of field glasses, they may sight one or two live buzzards high in the sky.
Buzzards may be ugly. They may be "flying garbage cans". But in Hinckley they are just as welcome as the swallows in Capistrano, California. It would be a sad spring indeed if the buzzards ever failed to come back to Hinckley Ridge.
1.A good title for this story would be __________.
A．The Hinckley Buzzard Festival
B．Buzzard, the Ugliest Bird
C．Why the Buzzard Has a Pink Head
D．The Return of“The Garbage Can"
2.The buzzard is called the "flying garbage can" because it __________.
A．is ugly B．eats waste and dead animals
C．looks like a garbage can D．collect rubbish on the ground
3.The surprising thing about Hinckley's buzzards is that＿.
A．they spend the winter in the south
B．they come very close to the town
C．they return on the same day each year
D．both buzzards and swallows return to Capistrano on March 15
4.At the information stand, visitors to Hinckley's Buzzard Festival can _________.
A．learn some facts about the buzzard
B．easily see a live buzzard
C．take some pictures with the background of live buzzards
D．feed their fill of pancakes and sausages to buzzards
The new mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan, is a man of the people, ready to listen to their problems, but only until 6 p.m. Then he has to do his homework. Michael Sessions, 18, beat former mayor Douglas Ingles, 51, by just two votes and became the new mayor of Hillsdale. He is America's youngest mayor.
As Sessions was too young to enter the election in the spring of 2005, he registered- to vote on Sept. 22, one day after his 18-year-old birthday. The day after that he started his write-in campaign, which means he should persuade voters to remember his name and write it by hand on the voting ballots（选票）.
To help get his name known, Sessions earned＄700 by selling apples over the summer. He spent the money on posters and put them on the Hillsdale's lawns.
Sessions' month-long campaign included going door to door, explaining his ideas of the town's future in the kitchens of his neighbors. "They'd look at me, and say‘How old are you again? How much experience do you have?'And I say‘I'm still in high school', "he said. Sessions promised Hillsdale's voters he would renew local economy. “I was hopeful the whole time, ”he explained. One day he spent so long out on the streets knocking on the doors that he ended up in a hospital emergency room.
Sessions said that his schoolwork will not get in the way of his job as a mayor. “From 7:50 a.m. to 2:30p.m., I'11 be a student. From 3 to 6, I'11 be the mayor of Hillsdale," he said.
“He did a very brave thing that couldn't have been easy for him to do, "said Jack Vettel, a councilman in Hillsdale, a city of 8,200 about 75 miles southwest of Detroit. "He does care about this town. He's been here all his life. ”
Sessions will receive＄3, 600 a year during his four-year term, and will work out of his bedroom since the town does not provide the mayor with an office.
1.What is TRUE of Sessions' election campaign according to the text?
A．Sessions launched his election campaign on Sept. 22.
B．Sessions worked so hard that he once tried to persuade people in a hospital.
C．Sessions won the election campaign by a very close outcome.
D．Sessions felt disappointed when asked about his age and experience.
2.In order to gain more support from the voters Sessions had to do all these things EXCEPT＿.
A．put up posters' B．renew the economy
C．sell apples D．talk to neighbors in kitchens
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A．American mayors usually work from 3 p. m. to 6 p. m.
B．In America, young people are encouraged to get involved in politics.
C．All teenagers are allowed to enter political elections.
D．American mayors receive a salary of 3, 600 a year during their 4-year term.
4.Which of the following would best summarize the text?
A．Schoolboy becomes American's youngest mayor.
B．How to become a teenage mayor.
C．Hard work is the ticket to success.
D．Never too young to shake the world.
I watch her and her mother decorate her college dormitory room. Everything is in place organized and arranged. Her room nicely accommodates not only her clothes and bric-a-brac(小摆设), but her ___36___ as well. I begin to accept that her room at home is no longer hers. It is now ours, our room for her when she ___37___.
I ___38___ myself thinking of when I held her in the cradle of my arm, in the chair alongside my wife's hospital bed. One day old. So ___39___, so beautiful, so perfect, so ___40___ dependent on her new, ___41___ parents. Time marches relentlessly(不停地).
She looks up now, catching me ___42___ at her, causing her to say to her mother." Mom, Dad's looking at me ___43____”.
The last few days, I touch her arm, her face--- ___44___ that when my wife and I return home, she will not be ___45___ us. I have so much to say, but no ___46___ with which to say it.
My ___47___ changed from the day I drove this child home from the hospital. I saw myself ___48___ that day, and it has led to a lot of places that I would never have found on my own.
She says, “It'll be all right, Dad. I'll be home from school ___49___.” I tell her she will have a great year but I say little else. I am afraid somehow to speak and I only hold on to our good-bye hug a little longer, a little ___50___.
I gaze into her eyes and ___51___to go. My wife's eyes follow her as she leaves us. ___52___ do not. Maybe if I don't look, I can imagine that she really hasn't ___53___ ; I know that what she is embarking upon(开始) is exciting and wonderful. I remember what the world looked like to me ___54___ everything was new.
As I walk to the car with my wife at my side, my eyes are wet, my heart is sore, and I realize that my life is ___55___ forever.
1. A．sister's B．teachers' C．mother's D．roommates'
2. A．lives B．visits C．separates D．graduates
3. A．force B．leave C．find D．have
4. A．small B．big C．funny D．strong
5. A．severely B．totally C．slightly D．strictly
6. A．innocent B．casual C．qualified D．inexperienced
7. A．laughing B．staring C．glaring D．looking
8. A．funny B．frightening C．kind D．sad
9. A．expecting B．imaging C．knowing D．doubting
10. A．for B．with C．within D．along
11. A．sentence B．quotes C．saying D．words
12. A．day B．career C．life D．age
13. A．easily B．carefully C．differently D．seriously
14. A．quick B．soon C．fast D．rapidly
15. A．gentler B．softer C．tighter D．warmly
16. A．start B．turn C．run D．wonder
17. A．Hers B．My wife's C．Mine D．Ours
18. A．gone B．grown C．born D．found
19. A．although B．where C．when D．why
20. A．destroyed B．beginning C．ended D．changing
Although the entrance to the cave was very narrow, those visitors managed to________through it.
A．press B．squeeze C．break D．cut
I don't think Tom's remarks are________；he is not supposed to say so.
A．in place B．in peace C．in surprise D．in trouble
So suddenly ________that the animals in the zoo looked very frightened during the total solar eclipse (日全食)．
A．did the sky turn dark B．the sky did turn dark
C．turned the sky dark D．was the sky turned dark
